Man, what a long hike! I think our route ended up being about 27 miles (and 5,000 feet) over two days. There were a few snow fields to cross (an axe wasn't totally necessary, but I kind of wish I brought mine). Had to endure some nasty weather and sloppy conditions ... and the mosquitoes were bad.

Here's a full trip report with photos, if you're interested in more details:

Our team of four climbed via the Anderson Pass Variation. While crossing the unbelievable sea of wobbly blocks to the south of West Gunsight Peak my wife stepped on a perfectly flat boiler plate and it tipped, toppling her into the rocks. (A fall from a standing position to level ground.) Somehow she managed to break her left pinky finger (severe angulation) and cut her knees bad enough to require a butterfly. As Mrs. Rat said she felt 'okay,' our two teammates continued onto Kings and I escorted my wife back to camp. (After great treatment the following day at the Evanston, Wyoming hospital we headed home. (The break ended up requiring surgery.) This just points out that bad things can happen with the most benign circumstances. Lugging around my bulky first aid kit for all of these decades paid off, and with EMT skills, this incident wasn't a big deal. (It ruined a good climb - and we're ready to go back!)

We spent two days skiing into Dollar Lake, via Henry's Fork. We broke trail through fresh snow on both days, Wed & Thur. From our camp near Dollar Lake, we headed for the summit at 9AM on Friday. We skied up Gunsight Pass, stripped our skis, and traversed the snowfield on the east face, heading south. We then skied a little further, and ran out of snow. So we ditched the skis, and bare-booted it up into the basin on the east of King's Peak, across mixed snow and rocks. reaching the base of King's about a quarter mile south of Anderson Paas, we climbed up the face onto the ridge, and summited about 2:40PM. On the way back, we ran into strong winds near Gunsight. My skis felt like a sail on my back. We sometimes had to ground ourselves to keep from blowing over, This was especially unnerving crossing back over the snowfield to Gunsight, where gusts tried to pull us off the mountain. Without crampons, I frequently had to plant the shaft of my axe, and lean into the mountain until the wind subsided. I'd never self-arrested going head-first, and didn't want to learn here. It took us an hour to go about 100 yds. When we reached Gunsight Pass, we were hit by a 50-60 MPH wind from the west. We ducked behind a large rock for shelter, hoping the wind would die down. Finally, we decided to push forward down into the pass. We had to lean hard into the wind and push off with our trekking poles to counteract the large wind profile of the skis on our backs. The wind was milder further down the pass, enough that we were able to stop and put our skis on. From there, we skied back to Dollar Lake. In retrospect it we may have presented less of a profile to the wind, and had better balance, had we strapped the tips of our skis together while carrying them. From now on, I'll always have the strap readily accessible. We headed back on Saturday morning. It took us two days to ski in, and three hours to ski out.

Hiked in to Dollar Lake and set-up camp. Terrible winds blew in the night before pushing for the top preceeding an impending snow storm. We decided to bail before getting caught up in the Uinta's notorious bad weather.

I've been up a few times. This is a nice climb, with an excellent view from the top. My favorite approach is up China Meadows over Smiths Fork Pass (passing Red Castle) and approaching up Anderson Pass from the west side of the mountain. This route provides more solitude than the popular Henry's fork route.

Have summitted Kings multiple times. Climbed Kings Peak in a day. That was a riot. Got caught in a hail storm and had to spoon with my younger brother to keep warm. Never had been so cold in my life. One of my greatest natural highs when I first summitted Kings when I was a little Boy Scout. Great memories and stories. Still love going to Henrys Fork Basin even though it has become very popular.

Climbed this with my uncle. We made it to the top before the big crowds and turned right around when we saw the storm heading our way- it amazed me how many idiots passed us heading up as we worked our way down the boulder field, even with our warning. The t-storm pounded us for 2 hours of the descent, but cleared up beautifully later. A great, great climb.

In 1981, I didn't know about any moose. I was camped
west of Dollar Lake with my brother, and we heard a
very strange noise in the middle of the night. It was
a constant grunting sound. There wasn't any other camps
or people around, so we concluded it was a bull moose.
Higher up around Gunsight Pass, we saw a coyote chasing
a deer. This is a very special place. I would recommend that
people experience this wonderful & primative area.

Hiked in from Henry's Fork, camped at Dollar Lake. Just about got trampled by stampeding moose through our campsight! Summit day avoided Painter Basin and Anderson Pass by going up and over talus field just past Gunsight. Traversed cirque to top of basin and then ascended King's from normal route. Descended down talus on face of King's ("toilet bowl")and back down the way we came. Wouldn't recommend the toilet bowl. Shaky rocks and much longer route than appearance would suggest make for a less-than-ideal descent. Fantastic trip!

Not a cloud in the sky the whole day!!! We could see most of the Wasatch Range from the summit. Camped near Gunsight Pass, got an early start, and were back around noon. Went down the "toilet bowl"--don't think I'll do that again...

Dayhiked via the traditional Henry's Fork route. Made great time to the summit and kinda cheated by coming straight down the chute from Anderson pass to regain the trail. I didn't think the chute was nearly as bad as many climbers say - but I didn't have anyone bombing me either... As most people don't dayhike, it was pretty lonely from Dollar back to the trailhead, but very nice. Caught a quick view of some moose (moosen?!?) and succeeded in not getting trampled!

My wife and I were looking forward to climbing this peak all year long. It was a great 3 day backpacking trip. We took the trail the whole way to the top. We were lucky because we made it to the summit for about 15 minutes, then we were caught in a rain shower, with lightning and all. But we made it. Kings peak was Highpoint #2 for us!